Fraud & Scams
Financial fraud, phishing, identity theft, scam alerts, data breaches, and how to protect yourself and your accounts.
Latest in Fraud & Scams
Chantix users can file a no-document claim from Pfizer’s $44 million settlement before September 14
Anyone who bought the prescription stop-smoking drug Chantix over a roughly six-year stretch has until September 14 to claim a slice of a $44 million...
Lock your my Social Security account to block a deposit-rerouting scammer in minutes
Social Security direct-deposit theft usually leaves no broken lock and no missing card. A thief who has gathered enough personal information can try to reroute...
Amazon Flex drivers who never cashed an FTC refund check are now being paid again by Zelle
The Federal Trade Commission is making another pass at getting money to Amazon Flex drivers, this time by depositing Zelle payments straight into the bank...
Jean Joseph got 20 years for running a $50 million Ponzi scheme from inside a federal prison
A Boca Raton man who kept a $50 million investment fraud running while sitting in a federal prison cell was sentenced this month to 20...
Kroger’s $17 million pharmacy-savings settlement repays members who overpaid, with a December 21 claim deadline
Kroger has agreed to pay $17 million to settle a class action claiming its pharmacies overcharged insured customers on prescriptions, and shoppers who qualify have...
The FTC is automatically mailing $23.8 million to about 640,000 Grubhub drivers and customers
The Federal Trade Commission has started sending more than $23.8 million to 640,038 Grubhub drivers and customers, money that arrives on its own with no...
Federal law lets you freeze your credit for free to block new-account fraud
A single stolen Social Security number can turn into a credit card, an auto loan, or a store account opened in a victim’s name, and...
Doxim data-breach victims can take a no-proof $100, or up to $5,000 for documented losses, before October 13
People notified of the Doxim data breach can claim a flat $100 with no receipts, or up to $5,000 if they can document losses, but...
Comcast and Xfinity customers can claim $50 with no proof from a $117.5 million breach settlement by September 14
Millions of current and former Xfinity customers can claim a flat $50 cash payment, with no receipts and no documentation, from a $117.5 million settlement...
Medicare open-enrollment scams spike each fall, and Medicare never cold-calls to sell a plan or ask for your number
Every fall, the same window that lets people improve their Medicare coverage also opens a season for stealing their money. Medicare’s annual enrollment period runs...
Banks must refund unauthorized electronic transfers you report within 60 days
When money vanishes from a checking account through a fraudulent debit, an unauthorized ACH pull, or a stolen card number, federal law puts the burden...
Cash App must pay users up to $120 million under a federal consumer-redress order
Block, Inc., the company behind Cash App, is under a federal order to return as much as $120 million to users, part of a $175...
Grandparent and romance scams cost older Americans hundreds of millions last year, and a verify-first call stops most
Older Americans reported losing $2.4 billion to fraud in 2024, and two of the schemes that hit them hardest, the grandparent scam and the romance...
No $2,000 tariff-dividend check is approved, and scam texts promising the payment are now spreading
A $2,000 “tariff dividend” that President Trump floated on social media has not been approved, funded, or scheduled by anyone in a position to authorize...
Doxim data-breach victims can take a no-proof $100 payment, or up to $5,000 for documented losses, before October 13
People whose personal information was exposed in the 2023 Doxim data breach have until October 13 to claim a piece of a $5.5 million settlement,...
A fugitive behind a $650 million real-estate Ponzi that took 2,000 investors was just added to the FBI’s most-wanted fraud list
The FBI has placed a former New Jersey real-estate executive on its newly created Most Wanted Fraudsters list, offering a reward of up to $150,000...
Scammers can reroute your Social Security deposit online, and locking your my Social Security account stops them in about two minutes
A retiree’s Social Security payment can be redirected to a stranger’s bank account without a single forged signature, using nothing more than the agency’s own...
A Georgia CEO got 20 years for a $380 million Ponzi scheme that drained more than 2,000 investors, and prosecutors seized his yacht and cars
Todd Burkhalter, the founder and chief executive of the Georgia advisory firm Drive Planning, was sentenced on August 14 to 20 years in federal prison,...
Comcast customers can claim $50 with no proof from a $117.5 million data-breach settlement before September 14
A $117.5 million fund is now paying out to people caught up in a Comcast data breach, and the simplest route to money asks for...
Port-out scammers hijack your phone number to grab the codes guarding your bank accounts
Thieves have found a way to drain a bank or brokerage account without ever touching the victim’s phone, using the number itself as the key....